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The man in my avatar may have killed two innocent teenagers Abigail Williams and Liberty German. If you know who he is Please call the tip line. There is a reward of $250,000 - Tel- 844.459.5786 or email: abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com

The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. Lois McMaster Bujold.

If decisions were made collectively by the board can't all of them be charged?

They can - IF there is good evidence that the board as a whole acted in a way that meets the criteria for corporate manslaughter.

We need to remember that as far as anyone knows at this stage the materials used in the refurbishment met all mandated safety requirements and that what happened may have happened not because of any single factor but because of a perfect storm of factors which individually wouldn't have been a problem.

Boards rely on professional and technical advisers for areas outside of their reasonable knowledge and expertise. If, for example, the board had been assured by, say, an architect or chartered surveyor that the planned refurbishment was well designed and specced and met all required standards, and they relied on that advice, then it's going to be difficult to establish that they acted with gross negligence.

In saying this, I realise there is the issue that the cladding panels appear to have been used higher up the building than they should have been, but this is a technical issue that very few directors, even high powered professional directors in listed companies, would have been able to recognise and query.

The man in my avatar may have killed two innocent teenagers Abigail Williams and Liberty German. If you know who he is Please call the tip line. There is a reward of $250,000 - Tel- 844.459.5786 or email: abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com

The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. Lois McMaster Bujold.

The actions of Kensington and Chelsea Council are to be considered in the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry, the government has announced.

The inquiry will also look at the adequacy of regulations, the tower's recent refurbishment, and the response of authorities in the aftermath.

Broader questions on social housing will not be included

The full terms of reference for the public inquiry, which have been accepted in full by the prime minister, are:

The cause and spread of the fire
The design, construction and refurbishment of Grenfell Tower
The scope and adequacy of the relevant regulations relating to high-rise buildings
Whether the relevant legislation and guidance were complied with in the case of Grenfell Tower
The actions of the local authority and other bodies before the tragedy
The response of the London Fire Brigade to the fire and the response of central and local government in the aftermath

I know that the focus right now is on the inquest into the fire itself and possible wrongdoing from the council and manufacturers but reading this today just stabbed me in my heart:

The remains of all children on the Grenfell Tower missing list have been formally identified 14 weeks after the deadly fire.
...
“It was a huge milestone today to be able to identify all of the children off this [the police] list and although it has taken a long time, 15 weeks, I am satisfied that all of those identities are secure and reliable and I wish to thank all of those who have worked so hard to achieve that and I particularly give thanks to all of those very many people who have been waiting,” Wilcox said in court on Wednesday.

She was speaking at the opening of the inquests into the death of eight-year-old Mehdi El-Wahabi and Rania Ibrahim, 31. As with all previous inquests, Wilcox immediately suspended proceedings to allow the police investigation and public inquiry to progress.
...
The remains of Rania Ibrahim, 31, were recovered from the 23rd floor, where she lived. Her daughters, Fathia, 5, and Hania, 3, are presumed dead. Her husband Hassan was in Egypt at the time of the fire.

Rania filmed harrowing footage from inside her flat on the night of the fire, which she streamed on Facebook Live. In Arabic and English, she spoke of being unable to get out of the block and recited the shahada, the Muslim prayer often said in moments of acute distress or danger.

Coroner’s officer Eric Sword said the provisional cause of her death was “consistent with the effects of fire”.

I remember watching the video that Rania sent her friend as the fire raged on and news reports were still coming in and hoping that she managed to get herself and her children to safety. For me, seeing the video somehow made the fire real and personal. It's hard to explain, I guess it became a story about real people and not just another news broadcast.

I guess the only good news is that the expected death toll may be lower than previously thought - because of fraud:

It emerged that the force is investigating eight fraud cases where people have tried to financially benefit from the fire - two people have been charged, one has been bailed, while the other allegations are still being looked into.

There have also been four allegations of theft from the lower levels while the building was under 24-hour security - one involving a "considerable" sum of money.
...
The police have seized 31 million documents and identified 336 companies of interest.
Investigators have so far taken more than 1,000 statements, and identified 2,400 different people they want to speak to.

“Seventy people and a stillborn baby make up the final death toll in the Grenfell Tower fire, police have confirmed.

The last two bodies were recovered from the burnt-out building and were confirmed by the coroner on Tuesday.

The Met Police now believe all of those who perished in the fire have been recovered and the search operation is expected to finish before Christmas.
A baby, Logan Gomes, who was stillborn, has been recorded as a victim of the fire.”

I hope all necessary action is taken to prevent this tragedy happening again.

The man in my avatar may have killed two innocent teenagers Abigail Williams and Liberty German. If you know who he is Please call the tip line. There is a reward of $250,000 - Tel- 844.459.5786 or email: abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com

The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. Lois McMaster Bujold.

For those unaware of the significant problem of domestic fires caused by faulty white goods, there's an article in the Mail today.

Is our hunger for cheap white goods turning our homes into death traps? They cause ten fires a day - some lethal. Action is needed, and urgently

Given that we can land a probe on a distant comet or control a stealth drone from thousands of miles away, manufacturing a tumble dryer, washing machine or fridge-freezer that isn’t prone to bursting into flames is surely a simple task of good engineering?

Not so. Even before the Grenfell blaze in June that claimed 71 lives and is thought to have been started by a fridge freezer, the white goods industry had a serious problem on its hands, posing lethal risks to consumers.

MPs recently heard that up to a million faulty tumble dryers of a type that have been linked to large fires causing fatalities may still be in British homes, according to the U.S. manufacturer Whirlpool while giving evidence to the business committee.